MUSIC
Music is the base of everything dancing, we believe that hiring amazing musicians that know and love to play for dancers is key for having a memorable event.
Joshua Fialkoff and
the Odd Fellows
Joshua Fialkoff lends his smoky voice and unique piano stylings – a veritable gumbo of “roots piano” flavors – to dance exchanges and series around the world, and has been doing so for over ten years. Joshua first began playing for dancers as a bass player for Solomon Douglas. Later, as a pianist, he started his own group and began sharing his distinct brand of Blues and Swing. Joshua is known for his unique arrangements that are at once new and old, and an authenticity and rawness that shines through in his presence and performance.
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Blues and Swing events throughout the US, Canada, and Europe regularly feature Joshua or one of his ensembles. Some recent performances include Spoonful (Edinburgh, UK), DCLX’tra (Washington DC), Dance Flurry (Saratoga Springs, NY), BluesSHOUT (Chicago, IL), Sweet Molasses Blues (Boston, MA), Eastside Stomp (Seattle, WA), Montreal Bagel and Blues (Montreal, QC), Capital Ballroom (Seattle, WA), Mean Old Blues (San Francisco, CA), and many others. He has shared the stage with a number of esteemed musicians including Gordon Webster, Barbara Morrison, and Meschiya Lake. Joshua is the rare performer who cares deeply about his audience, who is constantly seeking to connect and engage the people he plays for, and who yearns to instill in everyone within earshot an irresistible urge to move.
Angelique Francis
JUNO Award winning artist Angelique Francis, is a versatile and exceptionally gifted musician. This multi-talented, multi-instrumentalist, multi-genre singer song writer and composer has wowed audiences across the globe with her electrifying performances, instrumental abilities and powerful textured vocals.
She is known for her eclectic mix of various musical genres including Blues, Soul, Folk, Americana, Jazz, Gospel and Rock. Angelique has shared the stage/opened for a large roster of well-known musicians such as Buddy Guy, Gary Clark Jr, Joe Bonamassa, Eric Gales, Keb’ Mo’, Jimmy Vivino, Beth Hart, Tom Cochran, Burton Cummings, Sugar Ray and the list goes on. Her diversity, passion and love of music can be heard in all of her original compositions.
Martin Goyette
Martin Goyette is first and foremost an extraordinary voice characterized by a song as powerful as it is scratchy. The singer seduces the audience with his raucous and enveloping “instrument” worthy of the great names of blues and jazz. Passionate about blues and jazz but also funk and soul, it is in these different styles that he propels his impulses. In addition to being an outstanding harmonica player with a distinct and well-pitched sound – like his voice
Born in the St-Henri district of Montreal, it was at the age of 18 that he started playing the harmonica, feeding on Muddy Waters and Robert Johnson of this world. In 1997, he thrilled the Quebec blues scene for the first time by winning the honors of the Valleyfield blues event in the Dirty blues band.
In 2002, he won the next generation prize at the Festiblues de Montréal at the head of the Riverside Blues group. A French tour ensued in 2003, including the opening act for Bob Walsh at the prestigious Blues sur Seine festival. The latter being hospitalized in emergency, Martin goes up on stage to open the ball in addition to replacing Mr. Walsh within his orchestra. After which a slew of first parts of the legendary bluesman on Quebec soil followed one another and Goyette was invited, on several occasions, to replace Guy Bélanger on the harmonica within the group.
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Since then, Martin has been seen in several important events including the Belles et Blues hosted by Normand Brathwaite in 2004 and the Montreal Harmonica Festival with Carl Tremblay in 2005. He won 2nd place at the Toronto Blues Talents Search in 2006 and also performed in the Queen City in 2007 at the Toronto Blues Summit.
More recently, soul lovers have been able to hear it, accompanied by his Skinny Bones, on the occasion of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, at the opening of Bernard Adamus’ concert at the Sherblues Festival, at the Festival International de Blues de Tremblant or opening act for the prince of soul and funk, Lee Fields. TVA viewers were also able to see it on the popular program La Voix.
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Jean-Sebastien Leblanc
Originally from Stoke in the Eastern Townships, Jean-Sébastien Leblanc obtained a Bachelor's degree in Jazz Performance in 2005 as well as two Masters degrees (Jazz Performance and Classical Performance) in clarinet and bass clarinet at the University of Montreal in 2007. Very active on the music scene , we have been able to hear him in various styles over the last few years with among others the Early Jazz Band, Masson Stomp, Chomedey Inn, Speakeasy Electroswing, the Cosmovision label, the Afro-Colombian Jazz Orchestra, the Straight Pipe trio, Marco Calliari , Roberto Lopez, Frédéric Péloquin, as conductor, composer, arranger, instrumentalist and singer with the 7 doigts de la main (circus) or as a freelancer with various ensembles.
He has performed several times across the province, including at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, the Quebec Summer Festival, the Francofolies de Montreal, the Rimouski International Jazz Festival, the Just for Laughs Festival as well as across Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Switzerland and Romania. He is regularly a studio musician for several musical artists of different styles, for circuses (Cirque du Soleil, Éloise et les 7 Doigts de la Main), for film music (including Robert-Marcel Lepage, Michel Corriveau, Luc Sicard , Raphaël Reed and Peter Venne) as well as advertisements of all kinds.
Also wanting to share his passion, he teaches clarinet (jazz and classical) and chamber music at the Cégep de Trois-Rivières as well as teaching clarinet and bass clarinet teacher for the music concentrations of Ozias-Leduc secondary schools, Collège Reine-Marie and Polyvalente Ste-Thérèse. An active musician with the Society for Arts in Health Care (SAMS) since 2013, he regularly performs in various residences, CHSLDs and other health establishments with the Early Jazz Band. A regular on the swing and blues dance scene, he also gives energy to body movements with his music since 2009 during evenings organized by various swing schools in Quebec, Canada, the United States and even Europe.
